Gov. Greg Abbott signals support for David Cook over Dustin Burrows in GOP fight for House speaker

In a social media post Wednesday, Gov. Greg Abbott, seen on Nov. 26, said the Texas House needs a "Texas House Speaker chosen by a majority of Republicans in accordance with the Republican Caucus Rules." (Credit: Michael Gonzalez for The Texas Tribune)

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Gov. Greg Abbott signaled support for state Rep. David Cook of Mansfield for speaker of the Texas House in a cryptic social media post on Wednesday.

The post didn’t mention Cook or his challenger, state Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, by name but said the next speaker needs to be chosen by a “majority of Republicans in accordance with the Republican Caucus Rules.” Cook has a majority of Republican House backers, while Burrows does not.

Abbott signaling could dash Burrows' campaign to be the next speaker. Shortly after Cook won the GOP caucus vote over the weekend, Burrows declared he had the necessary votes — from Republicans and Democrats — to win the gavel, but has since been losing supporters.

Any speaker hopeful would need to assemble a coalition of at least 76 House members to win control of the 150-member House.

Burrows had released a list of 76 supporters — 38 Republicans and 38 Democrats. Three members said they should not be on the list; others have withdrawn support for Burrows in the past week.

Cook has sought to oust current House Speaker Dade Phelan, a Beaumont Republican, for months. Phelan dropped out a day before the caucus voted for their speaker choice. Burrows, a top Phelan ally, filed late Thursday night as Phelan exited the race.

Cook was declared the endorsed candidate by the House GOP Caucus on Saturday by a vote of 48-14 after a contingent of Burrows’ supporters dramatically left the meeting after the two rivals had stalemated in the first two rounds. A caveat is that, by the group's rules, all 88 GOP caucus members are tied to vote for the endorsed candidate. Other Republicans outside the chamber have weighed in on the public fight for the gavel.

After the caucus meeting, Burrows claimed victory, saying “The speaker’s race is over.”

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick also joined Abbott in “affirming that a majority of Republican House members must choose the Speaker.”

“Any Republican Speaker candidate who attempts a coup d’état to steal the speaker’s gavel with a majority of Democrats and only a handful of Republicans will never be accepted by Republican voters,” Patrick wrote on X.

Roughly 80 state county GOP chairs — led by Tarrant County — have released a statement calling the behavior of state house Republicans who support Burrows for Texas House speaker an “unacceptable betrayal” and urging every Republican House lawmaker to publicly support Cook for speaker instead.

Donald Trump Jr. also posted support for Cook as House speaker in an X post.

“It’s unbelievable what is happening in Texas right now. There is a group of so-called Republicans cutting a deal with liberal Democrats to elect a speaker instead of uniting behind the Republican nominee,” Trump Jr wrote on X. “Unbelievable! Republicans have a mandate!”